Projects in October

Curtis worked on the fireplace at the beginning of October with Garrett's and Jack's help. It came together pretty quickly for the most part after we received the shiplap. It was exciting to see it come together.

We ordered a new TV on Amazon and didn't notice it had a crack on the screen until after we hung it up and turned it on. Fortunately, we were able to return it easily. 

We bought a new TV locally this time and at Costco. We're happy with how everything turned out!

Curtis still needed to buy some insulation for the fire stove and a fireproof mat, but it was essentially finished at this point. The next order of business was to get curtains for the window, but I didn't want to do that until I had fixed up and painted the windowsill. It had been either chewed up or clawed by the previous owner's dogs. It was also painted blue, and we wanted it white. I used a lot of plastic wood filler to get the windowsill back to looking nice again. I would put some on, let it dry, sand it down, and then do it again in places that still needed it. I think I did this process about 8-10 times. I really wanted it to look good since it was in our living room where a lot of people will see it.

This is what it looked like before. I had already started to add the plastic wood putty when I took this picture. The pink color turns brown when it's dry.

It was scratched up in the center for at least the length of half of the big window, maybe a little more than half.

After having some layers of putty applied and sanded. It still had some bumps to fill.

I finally got it where I was happy with it and got it primed and painted.

Once I finished the window, I decided to work on the stair's banister next. It had been painted white before, but much of it had rubbed off and you could see a lot of brown from the wood. There were some spots that needed some putty here as well, but that didn't take near as long. I did not enjoy painting this banister though. It was long and tedious, as there were lots of curves and places to reach with the paint, but I am glad I got it done. 

It took me a little while to figure out what color of curtains to get for the living room, but I did get some help from ChatGPT on my phone (AI). It had told us to go with a black curtain rod to match the trim work of the fireplace and the ceiling fan. Then to get a lighter color of curtain in a long length. We found one we like, except having had them up for a month now, I think we would like to switch to a type that will keep the sun out better (room darkening), but same color. It's nice to have a lot of sun in, except when we're watching something on TV.  I didn't buy new curtains for our dining room or other sliding door yet, so we might just move the curtains we bought over to those windows.

Got our new curtains and decorations up.

All decorated for Halloween now. YouTube has scenes you can put on your TV that have ambience music playing with it. They have some for Halloween, Fall, and Christmas. (The TV screen was pulled out and turned a little, so that's why it doesn't look quite centered.)

It is so rewarding after working hard on a project to see how it turns out in the end. We are so thrilled with how everything looks. We thought about renting a cabin for Christmas this year but have now decided to stay home and enjoy Christmas in our newly remodeled living room with our new fireplace. Bring on the holidays!